View Full Version : 20 Comics That Can Change Your Life
iSteve
03-02-2007, 05:00 PM
Nerve's 20 Comics That Can Change Your Life (http://www.nerve.com/dispatches/nerveeditors/20comics/).
Many were not surprises, but some I've never heard of. What do you think of the list? What other books would you add?
jaflanagan
03-02-2007, 05:10 PM
That's a really good list, especially for the non-comics reader. I don't know if I'd have gone with Miracleman, as opposed to some other Moore work, one that you can actually buy, for example, but I think that covers a lot of ground, without relying on superhero books. But if I was going to include a cape book, I'd go for the Dark Knight Returns.
21 years old, and as good as the day it was thought up.
kwok_talk
03-02-2007, 05:11 PM
Nerve's 20 Comics That Can Change Your Life (http://www.nerve.com/dispatches/nerveeditors/20comics/).
Many were not surprises, but some I've never heard of. What do you think of the list? What other books would you add?
Can you copy & paste the list? The website is blocked for me at work.
jerome
03-02-2007, 05:13 PM
Though i've only read about 60% of the things on that list, can't argue with any of them.
iSteve
03-02-2007, 05:17 PM
Alias by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos
Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
"Bomb Scare," Optic Nerve #8 by Adrian Tomine
Hate by Peter Bagge
Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis
Heavy Liquid/100% by Paul Pope
Diary of a Teenage Girl by Phoebe Gloeckner
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Blue Monday by Chynna Clugston
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron by Daniel Clowes
Fortune and Glory by Brian Michael Bendis
Kabuki by David Mack
Love and Rockets by Los Bros Hernandez
Sandman by Neil Gaiman, et. al.
Miracleman by Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, et al.
Zippy the Pinhead by Bill Griffith
Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai
Fantastic Four Issues #1-#102 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Planetary by Warren Ellis
all the stuff that I've read on that list is great
jgg0610
03-02-2007, 06:26 PM
Sounds like an interesting list. I'll have to check it after work. I clicked on the link and got the black screen of death from our filtering software.:(
xyzzy
03-02-2007, 06:29 PM
A lot of good comics on that list, but I think that calling them "life changing" is really pushing it.
mikegraham6
03-02-2007, 06:41 PM
i haven't read a lot of the stuff on that list, but everything i have has been great. there's also a lot on there that are on my "to read" list, like fortune and glory, usagi, love and rockets and planetary, so maybe i should get off my ass and order those...
but i was suprised to see that there where a lot i hadn't heard of, i may not read everything but i like to think i KNOW of the majority of books out there, its good to be surprised i guess
Interesting list,
For the most part I agree, though i would put 100% over Heavy Liquid, it's a more cohesive story.
Nice to see Planetary getting some love, I read it in trades and CAN"T wait for the next one (I thought the series was ending with 25? guess not). If you're not reading it you should be, fantastic Pop culture/comics stuff.
It does seem odd that NOTHING by Frank Miller made the cut, oh well, the list is what it is I guess, though Dark Knight certainly changed my life.
xyzzy
03-02-2007, 06:57 PM
Interesting list,
For the most part I agree, though i would put 100% over Heavy Liquid, it's a more cohesive story.
Nice to see Planetary getting some love, I read it in trades and CAN"T wait for the next one (I thought the series was ending with 25? guess not). If you're not reading it you should be, fantastic Pop culture/comics stuff.
We've got one more issue coming, but it's said to be essentially an epilogue.
It does seem odd that NOTHING by Frank Miller made the cut, oh well, the list is what it is I guess, though Dark Knight certainly changed my life.
How did it change your life?
jaflanagan
03-02-2007, 07:09 PM
A lot of good comics on that list, but I think that calling them "life changing" is really pushing it.
You're a very literal person aren't you?
Give the dude some poetic license. If he'd turned in an article that said, "20 Comics That Are Really Very Good," he'd lose his job.
humphrey-lee
03-02-2007, 07:17 PM
A lot of good comics on that list, but I think that calling them "life changing" is really pushing it.
Honestly, at least three or four on those books have had undeniably profound affects on my life, in my perceptions of the world around me, and of how the medium of comics can and should be. And there's another handful of books like Promethea, Lucifer, Pride of Baghdad, etc that didn't make the list that I could say the same for.
xyzzy
03-02-2007, 07:19 PM
You're a very literal person aren't you?
Yeah. I'm a lawyer, so word choice is very important to me.
Give the dude some poetic license. If he'd turned in an article that said, "20 Comics That Are Really Very Good," he'd lose his job.
Sure, but maybe something like "20 comics that Everyone Should Read." Which, okay, is still a push, but not as much as "change your life" is.
paper
03-02-2007, 07:23 PM
How about "17 Comics and One Preview Book You Probably Shouldn't Bury Under Your Porch?"
alexg
03-02-2007, 07:29 PM
Yeah. I'm a lawyer, so word choice is very important to me.
Sure, but maybe something like "20 comics that Everyone Should Read." Which, okay, is still a push, but not as much as "change your life" is.
Yeah, I mean "change your life" wanders into the realm of hyperbole, of which there is quite a bit of in print these days. How about "20 books to read on the can" ?
anyway, I was impressed with the inclusion of the first FF issues, and think they give some interesting context to some of the other books on the list.
How did it change your life?
While being one of the first stories that I ever read, and first made me think Batman was the coolest...
it's also such an intesting view of government and media and oppression it was a step towards making me into the "Rage" listening, Orwell reading, government hating hippy I am today.;)
jaflanagan
03-02-2007, 08:01 PM
Yeah. I'm a lawyer, so word choice is very important to me.
Sure, but maybe something like "20 comics that Everyone Should Read." Which, okay, is still a push, but not as much as "change your life" is.
Heh, that's why I didn't go into law.
I guess it depends on how you let art get to you. There are some people who swear that Sandman did in fact change their life. I don't necessarily relate to that, but it can happen.
As I've said on the show, comic readers are some pedantic mf'ers. For a group of people in love with the imagination in comics, we pick the hell out of stuff. I'm just as guilty as the rest.
xyzzy
03-02-2007, 08:08 PM
Heh, that's why I didn't go into law.
I guess it depends on how you let art get to you. There are some people who swear that Sandman did in fact change their life. I don't necessarily relate to that, but it can happen.
Oh, I don't doubt that it could happen. I mean, hell. Walking out the door could change your life. Taking the bus could change your life. Pretty much anything could. That's why, when someone takes special care to tell you that something might change your life, once has to assume that it means that it is likely to change your life beyond the mere realm of possibility that all things have for life changing experiences.
As I've said on the show, comic readers are some pedantic mf'ers. For a group of people in love with the imagination in comics, we pick the hell out of stuff. I'm just as guilty as the rest.
Oh, no doubt. As you can tell, I can talk about nothing for days on end.
labor_days
03-02-2007, 08:30 PM
Wow, some great picks on that list. Transmetropolitan, 100%, Hate, Diary of a Teenage Girl, Love and Rockets, Planetary...all great stories. Love the write up for the Fantastic Four too. Think what you will of Lee & Kirby but those earlier works are of their time and timeless. Uatu, Mole Man, The Inhumans, dude made of living rock? "Insane spectacles", indeed.
Ellis and Ennis are probably my two favorite comic writers.
Sandman was great for 73 issues - then I quit
didn't like the death of *******[something]
jerome
03-02-2007, 08:40 PM
There are only two issues after that!
jaflanagan
03-02-2007, 09:04 PM
Way to blow it for the folks who ain't read it.
jerome
03-02-2007, 09:10 PM
He doesn't care about Neil Gaiman.
jaflanagan
03-02-2007, 09:15 PM
He doesn't care about Neil Gaiman.
http://www.downloadsquad.com/media/2005/12/kanye_west_mike_myers.jpg
"Fred doesn't care about Neil Gaiman."
http://www.downloadsquad.com/media/2005/12/kanye_west_mike_myers.jpg
"Fred doesn't care about Neil Gaiman."
that's true. Neil Gaiman's a penis. I did you a favor.
I'll try to edit it. I didn't think of that
jerome
03-02-2007, 11:01 PM
don't hate
all his books are the same how can I not?
actually this started as a way to see if we had crazy sandman fans and see how crazy they were
jerome
03-02-2007, 11:05 PM
did it work?
not really or at least not yet
paper
03-02-2007, 11:24 PM
I like Gaiman's novels, but I've never actually read his comics. Though I do have a copy of Mr. Punch around here somewhere.
I can definitely understand your criticism though. He does have a one-track mind, that track being, "What if God(s) Was/Were One of Us" on repeat...
xyzzy
03-02-2007, 11:39 PM
I, too, haven't been particularly keen on Gaiman's comics, but have enjoyed his novels.
American Gods is top notch.
humphrey-lee
03-03-2007, 03:02 AM
all his books are the same how can I not?
actually this started as a way to see if we had crazy sandman fans and see how crazy they were
I'm not a crazy Sandman fan, but I still say it's one of the top five (and in my person judgement the best) comics ever made. I'm sorry, the craftsmanship of the overall story, the literary devices, the characters and how they link. It IS a masterpiece. It's not as easy to access as a lot of comics and not as entertaining as your more energetic capes books, but if it were then it wouldn't be special.
I'm not a crazy Sandman fan, but I still say it's one of the top five (and in my person judgement the best) comics ever made. I'm sorry, the craftsmanship of the overall story, the literary devices, the characters and how they link. It IS a masterpiece. It's not as easy to access as a lot of comics and not as entertaining as your more energetic capes books, but if it were then it wouldn't be special.
The first 65-70 issues were awesome. I'll not spoil the ending again(I alreaddy edited it out the first time) but I stopped at 73. The ending was not for me.
humphrey-lee
03-03-2007, 03:07 AM
The first 65-70 issues were awesome. I'll not spoil the ending again(I alreaddy edited it out the first time) but I stopped at 73. The ending was not for me.
Gah. I love that ending. I really don't see how it could be any other way. The only real complaint I had about the overall series is that I don't think the issues involved in the World's End stuff needed to exist. Didn't really add anything to the overall, and they were only average stories at best. The amazingness of the majority of the other issues still more than overcompensate for them though.
I can't really explain it without spoiling it and Sandman gets pushed fairly hard around here so I don't want to mess it up for anyone.
I can say this: 'When the ending reveal changes the fundamental nature of the character - that totally sucks for me'
jaflanagan
03-03-2007, 05:21 AM
I loved the ending. It fit perfectly in my opinion. Things changed, yet didn't, just like the endless themselves. But whatever floats your boat. I just remember really digging the calm and solemn resolve Morpheus had. I also was a big fan of Matthew's reactions to everything.
ok, I'll come right out with it
Immortals can't be killed
to replace an immortal with a new being that is him but isn't is wonky, weak, and strange
in my opinion
jaflanagan
03-03-2007, 06:05 AM
SANDMAN SPOILER WARNING
He wasn't killed. He was the same person, but different. The thing that is Dream was still Dream. I thought it was a very ingenious way of expressing immortality. Whether Morpheus was a host, or just an incarnation of Dream is one thing, but Dream, which is a bigger concept that we're supposed to understand, cannot rightly die and did not. When Morpheus didn't want to go on any more, he had a way to do that with Daniel. Who's to say how it works? Who's to say immortals can't die? He was making it up. It was an imaginary story, and the only rules are the ones he sets for himself.
This is gonna be one of those "agree to disagree things," right?
Even if you're wicked wrong.
whatever dude
you may be right but
that's wicked retarded
'Who's to say immortals can't die?'
Um, how about the person who came up with the word immortal - roughly meaning not mortal or he of infinite life span
I agree to disagree
jaflanagan
03-03-2007, 04:37 PM
In the MU, both Odin and Thor have died.
And Dream didn't die. Dream never ended. Dream is Immortal. All Gaiman did was show that Dream was bigger than just Morpheus.
Besides the concept of immortality is a made up idea at best, one for telling stories. In reality, as far as I'm concerned, there is no immortality, and therefore what a storyteller chooses to interpret as the concept of immortality is fair game.
that's just way too much work for me. I don't know. I agree that the first 65 or so are awesome, but after that we have probelms coming together on what all the words mean.
jaflanagan
03-03-2007, 05:38 PM
Of the many people I've talked to about this book, I've never heard anyone other than you say that it ended badly. I just don't want people to get the impression that the end of this book isn't good. You're out there floating on your own dinghy there. I found the last book so satisfying it was silly.
Aaaaaaand, we've ruined the thread.
Well, not really. We're still talking comics.
Everything that I say comes with the unofficial, usually unstated proviso, that it's only my opinion. I am wrong sometimes too.
iSteve
03-03-2007, 06:39 PM
Everything that I say comes with the unofficial, usually unstated proviso, that it's only my opinion. I am wrong sometimes too.
Fred the Omnipresent wrong? Noooooooooooo!!!
labor_days
03-03-2007, 06:43 PM
I never read Sandman. And now I don't have to. iFanboy saving me money one thread at a time.
(i kid, i kid. sandman really isn't my thing.)
Fred the Omnipresent wrong? Noooooooooooo!!!
No, he's right though. If you're inclined you should read it. I don't want to keep anyone from it. I thought it was very good for 65 issues or so and then went to hell in the last 10. Just my preference though.
that was very wishy-washy and out of character and I apologize to anyone expecting me to yell 'damn the man save the empire'
acomicbookgirl
03-03-2007, 08:28 PM
I'm gone for a night and Sandman get spoiled Green Arrow is getting cancelled.. :eek: This is so not my week.. Least there's a weekend.
Anywho, i'm not going to be mad for Sandman getting spoiled but i've read the first 3 trades and I like it so far. Would it be something that I would recommend to just anyone? Not exactly. Unless, they wanted to read something of Neil Gaiman. I've tried reading his books, I just can't seem to get into him. Would Sandman be on my top 20 that changed my life? As of now, no.
Sad though, I've heard of some of those books but haven't exactly read any of them.. :(
mastap
03-03-2007, 08:40 PM
Just to give my two cents on Sandman, I always saw the series as Morpheus' journey through change. I always saw the ending as Morpheus admitting his change and accepting te greatest change. Then again two cents arn't worth much. And the temepst issue was the perfect ending.
jaflanagan
03-04-2007, 05:44 AM
I'm gone for a night and Sandman get spoiled Green Arrow is getting cancelled.. :eek: This is so not my week.. Least there's a weekend.
To be fair, it's only sort of a spoiler. The story starts going in a certain direction long before you get there, and it's pretty obvious where it's going. It's very much about the journey to the end, rather than where the end is.
But if it did get spoiled I'm sorry. I did use giant capital letters. :o
acomicbookgirl
03-04-2007, 05:47 AM
To be fair, it's only sort of a spoiler. The story starts going in a certain direction long before you get there, and it's pretty obvious where it's going. It's very much about the journey to the end, rather than where the end is.
But if it did get spoiled I'm sorry. I did use giant capital letters. :o
Yeah I saw The Giant letters.. Don't worry, I'll still read it.. :)
lindseyd
03-04-2007, 07:06 AM
I am so glad Fun Home is on there. I've read it like six times and cried every single time. Alison Bechdel is so brilliant it hurts.
THIS is the book I think everyone should read, comics reader or not. It also had the bonus of being in my library so I read it for free and therefore you have no excuse. It isn't for all ages; it's brutally and heartbreakingly verristic about life and sex and everything else.
I read Blankets after that and it just seemed mediocre. I know Blankets is supposed to be really really good but after Fun Home it seemed pretty meh.
jaflanagan
03-04-2007, 07:20 AM
I want to check out Bechdel's work. I've heard her name a lot recently.
I felt the same way about Blankets myself, without even having something else to compare it to.
Ron has to read Sandman now. Sorry Ron
iSteve
03-04-2007, 09:26 PM
Ron has to read Sandman now. Sorry Ron
Awesome!!!!
Awesome!!!!
by golly that sucks
iSteve
03-04-2007, 09:34 PM
by golly that sucks
That's what Ron said, too.